Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) on Monday named three militants behind a deadly attack on a top Burkina Faso hotel that has highlighted the growing reach of extremist groups in west Africa, as French police joined in the probe.
Burkinabe troops fanned out across Ouagadougou with security stepped up at key sites as visiting Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi pledged that west African nations would fight back against a mounting terrorist threat.
The toll from the weekend attack rose to 30 late on Monday with the death of French-Moroccan photographer Leila Alaoui, Morocco’s MAP news agency reported.
Photo: AP
She was severely wounded when gunmen stormed the Splendid Hotel and the nearby Cappuccino cafe she was visiting on Friday evening.
Alaoui, who has had several international exhibitions of her work, was on assignment in Burkina for Amnesty International.
A source close to the investigation said 20 people were arrested on Sunday and Monday in connection with the attack, which killed more than one dozen foreigners. Some of those arrested were later released.
Boni Yayi, speaking on behalf of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States, said: “We’re not going to just sit on our hands. We will react and respond.”
He spoke as details emerged about a delayed, ill-equipped response from Burkina Faso’s security forces, which have been weakened by recent political turmoil.
Twenty-five of the victims have now been identified, public prosecutor Maiza Sereme said, confirming that six Canadians and eight locals were among the victims.
Burkinabe Internal Security Minister Simon Compaore earlier said the foreign dead also included three Ukrainians, two French nationals, two Portuguese, two Swiss and a Dutch person.
The US Department of State has said an American also died.
French President Francois Hollande spoke by telephone on Monday with Burkinabe President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, pledging “any assistance needed... for a proper investigation of these heinous acts.”
The first such incident in Burkina Faso, it came weeks after militants claimed an assault on a top hotel in Bamako, capital of neighboring Mali, that killed 20 people.
At the Ouagadougou crime scene, a team of 18 French investigators, including forensic experts, joined local police combing for clues at the hotel and cafe.
In a statement carried by US-based monitoring group SITE, AQIM said the Splendid Hotel was “one of the most dangerous dens of global espionage in the west of the African continent.”
It published photos of the three young militants dressed in military fatigues and wielding weapons, identifying them as Battar al-Ansari, Abu Mohammed al-Buqali al-Ansari and Ahmed al-Fulani al-Ansari.
The operation was claimed by AQIM in the early hours of Saturday morning while the attack was still ongoing.
In an earlier statement, AQIM said the militants were from the al-Murabitoun group of Algerian extremist Mokhtar Belmokhtar.
Authorities in Burkina Faso have said the bodies of three assailants had been identified, but several witnesses said they saw more than three attackers and a manhunt was under way for accomplices.
Witnesses said security forces waited hours before taking action against the attackers, with the first on the scene poorly equipped.
“Our men were raring to go. We were trained for this,” said a gendarme military police source. “We had equipment issues. No night vision goggles, no bulletproof shields, no door breaching tools.”
The elite presidential guard unit, which had a well-equipped and trained anti-terror squad, was disbanded after a coup attempt it staged in September.
In addition, the authorities jailed the unit’s commander, General Gilbert Diendere, who led the intelligence services.
Previously, the spying operation had provided intelligence to various countries, including France, during attacks and kidnappings across the region.
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